APRIL FET

kristimh80

@ndz2018 That's a great plan! By Thursday you would have addicted to PST and will need a good nap back! lol

@dragonette505 Good point! Before this TWW I said I'd be testing...now I'm in it I'm a hot mess! LOL Yum that does look really good!! When I did my lupron trigger shots...I remb getting hot flashes and it made me tired, so sounds like that maybe your culprit. 

smittenkitten123

@kristimh80, do what you think is best for you. I did 1 POAS and bummed myself out, so not doing anymore...when I know for...i know and there itsnt this grey area.
But I still keep looking for signs and symptoms. I started having ingredients cramps,  it don't know what that means...

@artemis618, how are you feeling? 

@ndz2018, glad you made it out there okay...jetlag is always worst going west...it should be better when you come home...hope your mom is okay.

@dragonette505, that zucchini hummus looks awesome...I want to try making it...I love zucchini!

dragonette505

@kristimh80 thankfully no hot flashes, tho! Ugh! I know it’s supposed to put you in a mini menopause.... my body is so ornery it still tried to grow some follies! Lol and after so many durn Tww’s i think that’s why I test early. I get anxious NOT testing... and the thought of going to beta with no information makes me freak out a bit. But I understand the other way of feeling as well. I have buddies who say they hate testing early because until then they are pupo and pasp, and sometimes early testing can steal that joy of just being preggers till proven otherwise 

ndz2018

@dragonette505 Awwww thanks doll!! There’s lot of tears and laughter back to tears I’ll tell you one thing , I’m glad I made the decision to come. That gif is hilarious BTW and I feel Like it really embodies your POAS addiction 

kristimh80

@smittenkitten_aka_knottie821 I totally get it! I tried a digital OPK last night because I didn't have anything else, just to see if anything would happen. I think it also bummed me out, even though I know it's super early and silly. 

@dragonette505 That's great you aren't getting hot flashes and that fun stuff! lol I get that! I like to be prepared as well...think I'm just torn right now. I said before I'd def be testing and I prob still will despite it making me aggravated! Last nights digital opk alone stole my joy and made me paranoid. 

dragonette505

@smittenkitten_aka_knottie821 it’s really easy to make! 
@ndz2018 lol.... yup! Everyone’s gotta feed their own crazy! And I’m SO glad you are their to support and get support from your family! These times are hard and the only thing that makes it supportable is being together with your family

dragonette505

@kristimh80 you’re still so early so I wouldn’t let it really get me down! Implantation takes time, and nobody implants on the same day. Then building up that hcg takes time. Just enjoy pupo and pasp till you can’t take it anymore but also I have to say, I see so many girls get bummed out by false negatives on opks.... hcg and lh are similar, but at super low levels it’s so much harder for an opk to detect. 

kristimh80

@dragonette505 Very true! Thanks for the support and making me feel better! I think we always here girls bragging about there positives so early, it can get to our head. Besides my tender butt from PIO, I haven't had much signs either. I'm trying not to trick myself into thinking I feel anything lol 

artemis618

@kristimh80 @smittenkitten_aka_knottie821. Thanks for checking in! Mostly the progesterone is making me really tired (even just on 2 Endometrin/day), so I’ve taken it pretty easy this weekend (just walked with a friend to lunch on Friday and walked to dinner with DH last night).  I guess somtetimes I worry that I haven’t been feeling optimistic enough?

If I POAS it’ll be the day before my beta (so Friday AM).  Last time as I mentioned I did two days before beta (7dp5dt - beta was at 9dp5dt)  and it was a squinter, which was annoying (not that the following day’s wasn’t).  Aligned with dragonette505’s reasoning, knowing or not knowing won’t change the result - but opposite her personal approach, sometimes ignorance is bliss . FRERs did arrive from Amazon last week though, so I go back and forth . As of today, I’m feeling patient enough.  May binge watch some shows this week to pass the time though.

@smittenkitten_aka_knottie821  Your beta’s tomorrow?

@dragonette505 Yum!  That looks delicious!  DH is supposed to make me some hummus today too

J1006

@dragonette505 Come make food for me!  That looks delicious!

@kristimh80 I don't have any tests in my house and I don't plan on buying any.  I know if they are here I will take them.  If I'm working on my beta day I will probably take one in the morning just so I know what to expect.   I've never had a positive test apart from testing out my trigger shots for my IUIs which I used the cheapie ones.  I may take one if I get a positive beta just for the experience

Edit:  I also survived doing my own IM shot!  I couldn't bring myself to dart it in, but it was painless.  Just a little annoying how long it takes to inject the oil through my needle.  If DH is home, he will do them, but if not I can handle doing it on my own.  

kristimh80

@artemis618 that’s what I need to do...binge watch shows today! Husband is glued to golf so it’s made me more antsy and a googling queen lol

@J1006 sounds like a great plan! My boss just asked yesterday if I could work the day after my beta. I think I’m going to tell her it’ll all depend. I doubt I’ll wanna be nice to buyers if the news isn’t great. About your PIO shot. Have you tried warming it up in a heating pad before injecting? I do that and it helps a lot and goes quick! 

alfieb-2

Hope it’s not too late for me to join. I just did an FET of 2 embabies on April 3. 

Congratulations to all the PUPO mama’s out there. @smittenkitten_aka_knottie821, @kristimh80, @artemis618 sending lots of positive thoughts and well wishes to you for your beta this coming week.

@J1006, @dragonette505, @mcgeeva, @tosh24, @funkykey, @alcnyc good luck at your monitoring appointments this coming week! 

Hope April brings us all lots of bfp’s. xoxo.

J1006

Thanks @alfieb-2! 

@kristimh80. I don’t start my PIO until Saturday. These are estrogen shots. I did warm it a bit yesterday since it was the first time I was doing it and it was the first time with my full dose. The oil it’s in is just ridiculously thick. It’s a lot thicker than my PIO. Luckily I only do .3ml at a time so it is a small dose. It doesn’t hurt at all and I haven’t bruised yet which is good. I think I just need to get used to injecting oil instead of Lupron (super easy) and the stim meds. 

dragonette505

@kristimh80 Last FET I was so mad at all those YouTube vids with those early positives... I started wanting to call bullshit because in the real world so so few girls get positives 4,5, and 6dp5dt lol
@artemis618 that sounds like a smart plan!  not going into your beta blind is probably the best way to go!  Also totally binge watch! I’m already building my list and saving stuff in my apps for the tww! Lol
@J1006 omg! All you girls doing your own shots are my hero’s!  I think taking a test after pos test is an awesome idea too! I say do the thing that will bring you the most peace
@alfieb-2 totally ride out your tww with us! When is your beta?

tosh24

I'm with @dragonette505...I'm a POAS-aholic. My first FET I started POAS 4dp5dt. My second FET I was able to hold off a little longer until 6 or 7 dp5dt which was probably a bit better for my mental health. No way could I go into a beta without POAS. That call would just be awful. I'd rather process in the privacy of my own bathroom.

@J1006 You are superwoman!

@alfieb-2 Welcome, congrats on your transfer! FX for a great beta this week.

dragonette505

@tosh24 so glad for a poas partner!!!! Lol

kristimh80

@dragonette505 Yes!!! People make me insane with their early positive. Usually, lately it's on my FB IVF pages lol

@tosh24 I agree! That was my argument prior to my FET and I'm sure I'm going to keep to it. Amazon just dropped off tests. I told my husband I was ordering dog treats and snuck the tests in my purse to hide them lol He's very anti-testing prior to beta because he's afraid I'll be upset and have a false negative or something. 

alfieb-2

@dragonette505 My beta is this Thursday.

So exciting! You and @tosh24 are POAS partners! Looking forward to these POAS posts and pics!  AFM, I’m too chicken to POAS. I will definitely do it the morning of beta, though. 

@kristimh80 Lol. So funny. I haven’t hid tests from my hubby, yet...although I can’t say the same about new clothing and make up.  

kristimh80

@alfieb-2 Same!! Friday I took myself on a Sephora shopping spree. I really just needed eyeliner, but found a lot more things I "needed" as well! LOL   

dragonette505

@kristimh80 @alfieb-2 I def smuggle most of my shopping home! Lol I don’t “hide” my hpt’s, but I don’t advertise them either. He never says one way or another what I should do about testing. But he sure doesn’t know HOW MUCH I test lolol 

kristimh80

@dragonette505 LOL!!! I bought a kit of internet cheapies. There's like 50 opks. I decided if they start getting darker, I'll try a hpt. They were the only thing that told me I was preggo with my CP. Since it says "ovulation kit", my DH will have no clue 

smittenkitten123

@kristimh80, I am sorry you got a bfn,  it just remember what you told me...too early. I didn't tell my husband either I did the pregnancy test and got a BFN. He just thinks we are waiting for the beta! ,

kristimh80

@smittenkitten_aka_knottie821 Awe I'm sorry you got one too! In my googling I've learned many girls don't get a positive till right at their beta...so hang in there! I've been a hot mess all weekend thinking about all the scenarios.

funkykey

Again, you guys are so fast! Or maybe I am just sloooo-ooooow this cycle... Anyway, really appreciating all the updates! Makes the wait go by faster.

@artemis618 - I would get into so much trouble if I worked on top of a Nordstrom Rack. Also, your embie is gorgeous!! FX!!

You know, about feeling optimistic... I sometimes beat myself up about not feeling optimistic enough. And then I remember that 1) I'm optimistic enough to keep doing the treatments and 2) how I feel about the embryo has no bearing on whether or not it will stick. Because if it did, I would have willed it into existence 100x by now. But yeah, basically years of thinking "mind over matter" or "think positive, be positive" have made me actually crazy, in that I think when I'm not being "optimistic" enough, I'm somehow going to control the outcome. 

The tricks our minds play on us, when we're dealing with all this stress! Sometimes I feel like a child again. I used to be so afraid that if I stepped on a crack, I'd fall and break my back. During the TWW, I'm always shaking my head at myself.

@ndz2018 - I'm so sorry. Ugh. IF sucks. Having to schedule all of this with a regular life sucks. And I'm sorry about your uncle and hope your mom is doing better.

@J1006 - I'm with you; I love the embie pics. I think they're so, so cool! I also think it's crazy cool that our babies have been frozen and thawed. It's like a superpower, or something. Like they're little superheroes. 

@kristimh80 - I'm pretty sure I'm not going to test. Like you, the TWW makes me nervous. And the further it goes, the more nervous I am. 

@dragonette505 - I don't know how you do it! I don't think I'm going to test at all. I barely want to answer the phone when they call with the beta results. I keep thinking I'm going to hear it ring and go hide in bed. 

I worked so hard to keep my feet warm all the time last time, and it didn't help much. I don't know that I'm going to make the same effort this time. But you're right though, sometimes it's nice to have the busy work to keep you sane. For me, even feeling like I have some control of the situation is helpful.

A BFP 4dp5dt? Unreal. That sounds like a trigger shot.

Also, I thought of you the other day. There's this local radio station running a "guess the sound effect" contest, and the jackpot has gotten really high. No one can guess it. Even my husband listened just so he could hear the effect, and he never, ever listens to pop music. I keep thinking: "If only I had a better quality radio, maybe then I could make out the sound better." 

And then I thought: "This here is a good time for HiFi radio equipment. If only Dragonette's H were on the case!"

@alfieb-2 - welcome! Thank you!

@kristimh80 @smittenkitten_aka_knottie821 - hang in there! This last bit of the TWW is the worst! Keeping FX for you!

AFM: just waiting, still waiting. My u/s will be on Friday, which for me will be CD15. Feels like an eternity from now! And I'm still waiting on my ERA results.

mcgeeva

Happy monday all! Sounds like you all have been busy POS Hopefully this week goes fast for everyone. The countdown is on! 9 days till FET wooop!! Now must keep sanity until then. Hoping April is a lucky month for all minus other life hiccups. Retail therapy always sounds like a good idea...until I have to hide my crap in the trunk of my car so my husband doesn't complain. Target is somewhere I can't go without coming home with a ton of @hit. Happens every time

Raspberry Leaf Tea - when would you stop drinking it? Before FET?

kristimh80

@funkykey FX your sonogram this week is a good one! I wish I had done an ERA test from the get go. I'd feel better about transfer with one.Thanks for saying 4dp5dt sounded like a trigger shot...I never thought of that and makes total sense

I decided this morning f-it....I'm having my coffee (least a cup). Since transfer I've been trying all the superstitions and I'm over following them lol Trying to follow them all I think has added to the pressure and figure in a normal scenario...we wouldn't have a clue. Hope everyone is having a good Monday morning!!!  

dragonette505

kristimh80 Lol... the things we do to make our hubbies think we are sane I'm also sticking with my morning decaf (I was worried it would impact my thyroid, but apparently decaf is fine) but I am switching cows milk to a vegan milk (for now) 
smittenkitten_aka_knottie821  @kristimh80 is right that lots of girls don't get positives until beta day (and some girls no pos on HPT till even day after pos beta!) I think its because no matter how you slice it, implantation can still take between 4-6 days (in a natural preg they say 4-7 days but that usually also include travelling from fallopian tube to ute). So depending on your emby and how it responds to thawing and etc, it can take more days to implant that we often assume. 
funkykey  I should tell my hubs about that contest! lol These hifi geeks listen to some really odd stuff! LOL... As for the 4dp5dt positives... trigger is a possibility (TW) for me last year with my positive then miscarriage FET I never got a negative because of trigger, so it was really hard to know if I was really pg... and it tortured me until maybe 1 day before beta when I turned a digi (hgc has to be at least 50 to turn a digi). But on the other hand I also think there are just some whackos out there who want to be the speshul snowflakes who were positive really early... its just a vibe I got from some of them. Those girls were also mostly natural pregnancy vids so part of me was even like: do you even really know when you o'ed?? As for testing: I guess its also just scientific curiosity too... I do think its interesting to see how soon one might begin to see a line. and I also feel like if I have a bunch of consecutive days with no line I wont be able to deceive myself by saying: maybe this time my pee was just too diluted... I'll be able to say... girl, be honest with yourself... theres no line. 

AFM I'm like funkykey and having a Friday monitoring! That will be cd12 for me. My doc says I "should" be on estrogen for 10-12 days and Friday will be 10 days exactly! SO hoping my lining isn't being an *sshole.... I sometimes have lining issues on these meds. 

artemis618

@smittenkitten_aka_knottie821 Thinking of you on your beta day today!  I’m sorry you experienced an early BFN, but I hope today yields better news.  Fx!

@funkykey This Nordstrom Rack is in downtown LA, so it’s not a big one (like no kids and babies stuff, as my coworker who has a kid and a baby pointed out).  The real danger for me is ordering a bunch of stuff online (gotta earn that free shipping, right? Since it’s so easy for me to just go downstairs and return it...or not  

Also, thanks for your note on the optimism.  You’re absolutely right about having simply willed previous embies into babies (if it worked that way).  I go back and forth - at the moment I’m mostly feeling okay.  Just waiting...  With each of my last (two) *TW* pregnancies, I didn’t even have implantation bleeding till 13DPO (natural) or 7dp5dt, respectively, so I think our embies just tend to be late implanters anyway (*TW*
not that those ended well).  Okay I’m going to stop thinking about that!

The forecasted high for DTLA today is a freakish 91 degrees.  But here I am in my socks and boots to keep my feet warm!

@kristimh80 I took January to do a natural cycle ERA since the timing with the lab/my RE’s schedule didn’t work out for another retrieval.  I wanted to do a natural cycle so didn’t take anything, but then they had me start progesterone a couple of days after I ovulated this cycle (for actual transfer).  Don’t get me wrong, I’m happy for the progesterone support to cover my bases, but wasn’t the point to replicate a transfer cycle exactly?  At any rate, it doesn’t sound like my clinic does a lot of ERAs and my previous RE (who actually joined my current clinic at the beginning of the year) was willing to do one (we only had one PGS normal embie at that time) but didn’t put a lot of stock in them.  So I wouldn’t worry too much.  Mine came back normal/receptive but we still didn’t do exactly the same thing anyway.  Hope you enjoyed your cup of coffee!  My previous RE stuck to the one cup a day being okay thing.  The progesterone is making me really sleepy and (regular) coffee sounds fantastic.

kristimh80

@dragonette505 FX for a great lining this week! I was shocked when mine had 3 stripes...it's always been homogenous on all my charts for the past year. I wasn't even sure it could get there either. As for milk, I love my vegan milk. The only time I mess with cow's milk is if getting fancy creamer b/c vegan milk didn't have much a variety.

@artemis618 Hearing you have late implanters was refreshing to read! In a way, I wish they'd offer ERA or endo scratches for everyone prior to transfers from the get go. I'd be happy to pay the extra $ for the peace of mind, even if was receptive. Progesterone had me taking long naps all weekend as well. This cup of coffee made me get a lot done this morning...I didn't realize how much I actually missed it! Kind of decided to go back to "normal activity" for now unless I get a real sign. So far I'm just pretending it prob won't work...that way I'll be surprised if it does.

dragonette505

artemis618  maaaaan.... all this talk of Nordstrom rack is giving me itchy shopping fingers! I've already been nervous shopping since this cycle started  
kristimh80 I tend to have a thin lining during these medicated cycles, but so far ive done good with being trilaminar. Both my surgeon and my RE said my lining looked good ahead of this cycle, but now I don't remember what they said my lining got to. Since I had uterine surgery recently I am nervous about how it will do.
I'm actually usually good with milk, but I know it can (a) cause mild inflammation (and who needs that in an FET cycle) and (b) reduce thyroid hormone (again very minimal, but since I'm on the edge, I cant play games). I'm probably only being strict going into this FET and during the 2ww. I use pea milk and oat milk which are good, but not as yummy as cow milk

kristimh80

@dragonette505 Totally understand why you'd be worried now knowing all of that. I believe they won't transfer below a 7 if memory serves me correctly. But sounds great if they say everything looked good going into this cycle! FX for great news Friday! I'll have to check out pea milk. Right now I'm trying a new almond & cashew with oats / prebiotic blend. 


@smittenkitten_aka_knottie821 Thinking of you today!!

dragonette505

kristimh80 what brand is the prebiotic blend?

kristimh80

@dragonette505 Silk. Should be in your grocery aisle with all the other almond milk.

SharBear06

Hi ladies, does anyone have an accurate due date calculator for IVF? If we're transferring a 5day Frozen embryo that hasn't hatched yet (it's a 4AA) how do I calculate my days/weeks along?
I think I'm considered 2W5D on the day of transfer then right? Thanks for any insight!

Transfer date was moved to 4/17 as my US from today showed my lining is 8.3. 
Also, anyone have any experience with compounded Progesterone, I was given that instead since there's a national shortage of PIO? Is it better/worse/no different?
Thanks and sorry for so many questions!!

kristimh80

@SharBear06 I always use this one. https://www.princetonivf.com/due-date-calculator/
I've used compounded progesterone suppositories before. Not sure the difference, but they are usually easy to use. After doing PIO, I kind of miss doing those! 

morganelizabeth123

@SharBear06 Funny you asked- I just got my transfer date a few minutes ago so I was looking up what my due date would be. I have a transfer on the 15th (its a 5 day embryo just like yours) and if all goes well my due date would be January 1st, 2019. So, according to that math, yours would be January 3rd!

SharBear06

That's so exciting! Sending lots of baby dust to you! Is this your first transfer? It's our first and we're very hopeful but trying not to get too excited  

J1006

I’ve used the Princeton one as well. Mine would be January 4th I believe

mcgeeva

I had a friend ask about the due dates today. Told me none of it adds up. I tried to explain it's already matured, possibly hatched so it's at a different place when implanted hence your farther along. Clearly I made zero sense so she probably thinks it's all wrong. Which meas all these Jan 1 babies will most likely be Christmas babies lol. 

J1006

Right. That makes sense. DH and I were joking about this. We are transferring next Thursday. we are transferring I believe one of our day 6 embryos which means technically our “conception weekend” would be this weekend... and DH is out of town not very many people know we are doing IVF so if it works and people do the math I’m in trouble haha